


All Alone in the Dark

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 19:51:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5678530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Jo have to deal with a spreading alien lifeform on a space station.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Alone in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Clocketpatch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clocketpatch/gifts).



> Clocketpatch's fandom_stocking notes mentioned liking 'darkness' in a fic, and I can be literal-minded sometimes.

Commander Hiroshi was standing by the hatch as the Doctor and Jo hurried up.

"We've sealed the module airlocks," she said. "The lifeforms are confined to lab 14."

"Confined for now, at least," the Doctor said grimly. "Those doors won't hold them forever."

"I'm well aware of that." Hiroshi turned to Jo. "Miss Grant. There's no need for you to accompany him. One life is enough to risk."

Jo looked up at the commander. "It was my fault they got out," she said. "And the Doctor needs me to carry his equipment and so on."

"I'm prepared to assist if necessary. This is my station, my responsibility."

"And it's important that you continue to exercise that responsibility, commander." The Doctor rubbed his neck. "If we don't succeed, you'll have to deal with the evacuation. And call in the big guns. Now, have we your permission to enter?"

"Against my strong objections... yes, you do."

The outer hatch of the airlock slid open, and the Doctor and Jo stepped through. As the hatch closed again, Jo shivered.

"Ready?" the Doctor asked quietly.

Jo tried to force a smile. "As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

The inner hatch began to rise, revealing what had recently been a typical space-borne research lab. Now, it looked as if multicoloured spaghetti was writhing across the walls, ceiling and floor, bulging here and there into plum-sized objects.

"Look," the Doctor said, nodding at a piece of the lab's original equipment: a flattish device, its purpose obscure to Jo, with a control panel on the front. It was now entwined in the strands, with several of the bulbs resting against its surface. The bulb touching the control panel had sprouted several frond-like growths, which were fluttering against the various switches and touch-sensitive panels. "It's started to differentiate."

"You mean it could learn how to work that thing?"

"Possibly, given time. More to the point, the airlock controls are a good deal simpler to learn than a molecular resonator." The Doctor looked around. "We need to reach the primary node."

"Is that where they brought the original sample in?" Jo asked. "It's down the corridor and on the left."

The Doctor nodded. "That's probably where it'll be. Try to avoid treading on anything, if you can help it."

He set off, tiptoeing across the floor between the strands. Jo followed, trying desperately to keep her balance as she hopped across tangles of the alien lifeform. It wasn't easy, with her arms full of coiled cables and what felt like the space station's entire stock of spare parts. Before she'd got halfway across the room, she had another concern.

"Doctor," she whispered. "I think there's something the matter with the lights."

"I don't think that's the lights." The Doctor put a hand to his head. "I suspect there's some form of psychic influence interfering with our visual cortexes."

"Sorry, I didn't understand that at all."

"This may be how the lifeform hunts," the Doctor explained. "Confuse its prey, interfere with their eyesight, and lure them to where it can eat them."

"Which is where we want to go anyway, isn't it?" Jo asked.

"Most likely, yes."

"But we can't do anything there if we can't see!"

"We'll just have to work by touch." The Doctor took Jo's elbow. "This way."

Before they were in the corridor, Jo could see nothing but blackness before her eyes. Unable to see where she was putting her feet, she plodded on. At first the floor felt solid under her boots, then as if she was walking through straw — straw which gradually became stickier. She tried, and failed, not to imagine the tendrils and plum-like growths bursting under her feet.

In the darkness, she could hear her own heart thudding, her own breathing and that of the Doctor, and all around a slow, deliberate noise. Something like ticking, except that each tick made a tiny, organic plip noise. She wasn't sure if what she could hear was the alien lifeform steadily growing, or if it was some kind of fluid circulating through its body. Either way, it felt as if a gigantic hand was slowly closing on them.

"Here we are," the Doctor said, making Jo jump and almost drop the cable she was holding. "The primary node."

"You're sure?" Jo whispered.

"I can feel it in my head."

Jo tried to empty her mind. "A sort of... numb feeling just behind your eyes?"

"That's right. It's trying to subdue us. We'll have to get a move on."

He started taking cables from her hands, then some of the tools. Jo heard the clicking of connectors, sharp and metallic against the background of organic sounds surrounding them. He must be working by touch, she supposed. Goodness knew what sort of device he'd end up making.

She jumped as something brushed against her arm.

"Keep calm, Jo," the Doctor murmured.

"I'll try." Jo's voice sounded barely audible in her own ears; the clicking and numbness seemed to be spreading. She tried to shift her posture slightly, and found that something — and she hardly needed to guess what — was coiled around her feet.

"I can't move my legs," she said, trying to keep her voice matter-of-fact. "I think it's tangled me up."

"Stay as still as you can." The Doctor was still working on the apparatus. "Don't let it trip you up."

Jo found herself barely able to breathe, let alone move. The tendrils must be growing all the time, reaching for her arms and legs. Something was tickling the back of her neck; it felt as if one of the plum-like appendages was resting against her cheek. She kept silent for as long as she could, but there were limits to her endurance.

"Doctor!" she hissed, desperately. She could feel a cold sweat breaking out all over her body. Something feathery was tickling her forearm, with the same kind of mindless motion she'd seen in the outer chamber. Back when the world had had shape and colour, however long ago that had been. "I can't..."

"Hang onto this." The Doctor pushed something into her hand: a box with a single button. "Press it when I say so. And not a moment before."

"OK," Jo managed. It felt as if the tendrils were engulfing her; a sour smell was filling her nostrils, and she could feel her jacket being tugged this way and that. The mindless brushing of whatever was tickling her was becoming harsher, as if it was graduating from feathers to glasspaper. "I hope it doesn't take long."

The Doctor patted her other hand. "Nearly there."

The sensation of the lifeform against her skin was rapidly ascending the scale from itchiness to pain. The numb feeling behind her eyes was still spreading, too. An unsettling chewing noise was coming from behind her, and the tugging on her jacket had spread to her trousers as well. Something nipped her leg, and she couldn't stop herself from letting out a yelp of pain.

"Three," the Doctor said. "Two. One. Now!"

Forcing her hand to move against the tendrils encircling it, Jo brought it down on the button. There was a sudden flash of light, in which she could see the Doctor and something large, distorted and inorganic looming over them both. Darkness fell again; then, as the tendrils went limp and the organic sounds surrounding them fell silent, light slowly returned. Looking down at herself, Jo realised she was in something like a thicket of the strands, a lot of which seemed to have developed teeth. The sleeves of her jacket were hanging in shreds.

"Can you give me a hand?" she asked.

The Doctor took her by the arms and lifted her out of the tangle. She felt the back of her jacket and the seat of her trousers briefly resist, and disintegrate in a tangle of fabric strips. Then she was standing beside the Doctor: ragged, barely decent, and scratched in several places, but alive.

"Are you OK?" she asked him. His own clothes looked just as badly shredded.

"Nothing to signify." He put his arm round her shoulders. "I think we got here just in time."

"Too right." Jo looked at what had been the central node of the alien lifeform. Even wilting and half-collapsed, she thought it might give her a nightmare or two. "It's a good thing you stopped the Commander coming along, isn't it?"

"There wasn't any need to risk her life. The two of us were quite sufficient to do the job."

"Well, I was thinking she wouldn't want her uniform to end up like this." Jo kicked a fallen bundle of fibres out of the way. "Doctor, what would have happened if I'd pressed that button early?"

"You might have killed the lifeform," the Doctor said. "But you'd certainly have killed me."

"You didn't tell me that! I might have pressed it at the wrong time!"

The Doctor shook his head. "I know you better than that. That's another reason why I wanted you along instead of the Commander."

"Oh. Thank you." Jo came to a halt as they reached the airlock once more. "Doctor, do you think you could do something for me?"

"Of course."

"Do you think you could find me something to wear — you know, down here?" She gestured at the remains of her trousers. "I don't really want to go out there with hardly anything on."

"My dear Jo, where do you expect me to find spare clothes to fit you on a deep-space research station light-hours from civilisation?"

Jo smiled up at him. "I'm sure you'll think of something."


End file.
